thread: 2006-08-31 : I think my expectations are screwed
On 2006-09-07, Valamir wrote:
Well that's the thing Tris...for every Christian who sincerely believes that you can find other Christians who sincerely believe something else.
It is a fairly universal (as much as anything with the label Christianity on it can be universal) belief that you can't get to heaven except through Christ. Good works alone are insufficient.
But what does "through Christ" mean? It doesn't necessarily have to look like what fundamentalist evangelical protestants says it looks like. They're just a very vocal (although fastest growing in the U.S.) brand of Christianity.
And the bible doesn't say with precision what happens if you don't get to heaven through Christ. There is no "believe in me or burn in hell" verse...that's just interpretation. Depending on which theology you subscribe to you you could wind up in hell, in purgatory, or nowhere...waiting for the rapture and the second coming.
Christianity is not some giant monolithic thing. There's variations among people calling themselves Christian that dwarfs any Shiite vs. Sunni difference. The bloodiest most destructive war in European History was fought Christian vs. Christian over differences in doctrine.
So be very much aware that nothing your friends say about what it means to be a Christian, no matter how fervently they believe it, necessarily applies to anyone else who considers themselves to be a Christian. Christianity's got more flavors than Baskin-Robbins.
